President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship is a “flagrantly illegal” attempt to redefine a right “enshrined in the very fabric of our country,” argued a lawsuit filed overnight in Massachusetts federal court.
The lawsuit — brought by an undocumented expectant mother who is due in March and two nonprofit groups — is expected to be one of the many legal challenges to the executive order that seeks to reinterpret the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to nearly every person born in the United States.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on birthright citizenship in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
“This unprecedented attempt to strip citizenship from millions of Americans with the stroke of a pen is flagrantly illegal. The President does not have the power to decide who becomes a citizen at birth,” the lawsuit said.
The plaintiffs argued that birthright citizenship is not only guaranteed in the 14th Amendment but has also been consistently codified into federal law; stripping away that right would be “overwhelming and devastating,” the lawsuit argued.
“Those victimized in this way by the EO would be shorn of their national identity, stigmatized in the eyes of those who should be their fellow citizens, and forced to live with the shame, uncertainty, and fear that comes with potential banishment from their native country. Many would be rendered immediately stateless,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit asked for the Massachusetts District Court to declare the executive order unconstitutional and issue an injunction preventing the enforcement of Trump’s directive.
The ACLU also filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s executive order.
-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous
